Ethical Decision Making
Topic: Ethical Decision Making
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An ethical dilemma is typically described as a difficult circumstance that involves a conflict between different morals or it can also be defined as a intricate situation that often involves an apparent mental conflict between moral imperatives, in which to obey one would result in contravening another. Ethics, integrity, compromise and corruption are areas that have become as imperative as other important areas of law enforcement training and when significant changes can occur which is also called an ethical paradox in moral philosophy, paradox often plays a central role in ethics debates while ethical dilemmas are often cited in an attempt to refute an ethical system or moral code, as well as the worldview that encompasses or grows from it (Gilmartin, 1999).
Taking the topic of ethical decision making, Tenbruensel and Smith-Crowe (2008) present a variance between moral decision making and amoral decision making and within each class of decisions; one can make ethical decision or unethical decisions. They further argue that social scientist should be telling people what is right or wrong but they do acknowledge that is necessary to define principles that define the criteria by which decisions are placed into their typology for purposes of being analyzed since it is very difficult to define ethical behavior.
Individual behavioral control can come through internal or external control apparatuses and the standards of social monitoring can be through monitoring of processes or behavior or the outcomes or results of these patterns.
Other people perceive a behavior to be unethical when one lies, cheats or steals and using this standard of ethics is the means used to achieve an outcome and not the outcome itself that determines whether the decision leading to the behavior is ethical or not. Another vital ethical standard is the use of codes, rules, guidelines and other systems that attempt to identify certain behaviors or means which are in themselves unethical where these culturally designed and promulgated codes of conduct or ethical systems provide lists of dos and don’ts. These ethical considerations may come in the form of common ones well known, such as the Ten Commandments. There are others that are established in the company cultures that need professional adherance like a legal code of ethics or a company code of conduct. They are meant to maintain certain standards such as fairness and equity, respect for others, and systems of non-discrimination and also function to balance power and protect the powerless.
Social units ensure that standards that are socially acceptable are adhered to through external or internal control mechanisms. In ethical adherence in organisations, there are control measures placed in form of rewarding compliance and punishing noncompliance. These meausres mak the members to have the necessary disciplie and control in complyingt the set internal standards and internalize their importance. This is like transferring the powers to the individuals that are expected to adhere to these ethical standards in form of private instrumental and terminal values then individual adopt religious creeds, professional codes of ethics and civic laws as their own personal standards.
In some instances, ethics is reffered to as the study of values and moral behavior while ethical behavior is acting in ways consistent with one’s personal values and the commonly held values of the organization and society (Nelson and Quick, 2008,) and using personal and social variables as criteria in organizational decision making and behavioral choice decisions.
Sometimes ethical decision making is easy and takes very little time the dilemmas where there are conflicting principles or conflicting interests of different parties are harder to resolve. These difficult situations are where the ethical decision making steps are important in reaching the most respectful, caring and ethical decisions.
The Canadian Psychological Association prescribes 10 steps for ethical decision making in its ethics code that help psychologists to amicably arrive at a solution to a conflict after it has already been recognized as an ethical issue (Canadian Psychological Association, 2000)
Therefore using the Canadian Code of Ethics for Psychologists would the best way to deal with the situation at hand.
To start with, it is important to identify individuals and groups that are directly affected by the decision which in this case are the state, my friend, the group that is targeted by the program and I.
Then the issues and practices that are ethically troubling in this particular situation should be pointed out without forgetting that the people that are affected by the situation have rights and opinions. The best interests of the people of interest should be cared for and their dignity should also be respected. It is also imperative to consider that in this situation there are professional relationships that are involved and also a responsibility to the society that is very important.
As human beings, we all have personal bias, stress, or self-interest in every aspect of the society which influences our choices between various courses of action. Therefore in this situation as much as I think this grant is important to the friend and would be a great appreciation for what he has worked for over a long time, it is still not fair and right to the rest of the community that they are not considered.
The state may not take it very well if they come to realize that he did not include all the groups in the program when he was applying for the grant even though the program has the potential of helping more young people.
At this point a number of courses of action have to be identified and looked at. There is the choice of not helping him survey since his scope is too narrow and does not cover the whole population. Alternatively, he can be talked to and convince to include everyone in the scope of the survey. There is also the choice of informing the state that he doesn’t deserve the grant since his scope is narrow.
The major risks, the shortcomings and also the considerable benefits of the courses of action should then be carefully weighed and analyzed to find out how they will affect the youth who are in the program, the state and friend once they are pursued.
It is then very important to pick a course of action either individually or collectively as deemed appropriate to the situation after thoroughly considering and applying existing principles, values, and standards that were looked at. Explaining to the friend that he should widen the scope of the survey since it is only fair that the grant should cover the whole youthful population would be the best course of action that would show the respect to the society and dedication to the development of the society. Helping him in widening the scope of the survey to cover those that were initially not in it also will serve to show a general respect, caring and concern to him.
Hopefully, through dialogue, a more ethical and respectful response will be obtained which will also give a chance to explore other alternatives that lead to positive changes within the programme.
At this point the course of action that was picked has to be implemented with an individual or collective commitment which is also important to be ready to assume the responsibilities of the outcome of the implementation of the action to be taken.
A plan to evaluate the results of the Course of Action should then be put up that will include responsibility for corrections of negative consequences, if they occurred. This action greatly depends on his response to the course of action that was taken that convinced him to include a greater population in the survey.
A negative response will then mean that I will have to act professionally as program evaluation consultant and not be part of the survey. There is also the option of reporting to the state what the evaluation missed during the survey.
Being obligated for the consequences of the action, correcting any negative outcomes, and going back to the decision making process if the ethical problem is not fixed is what should automatically be the next step. If he decides to go on with the survey the way he wanted it in the beginning, another method of solving the stalemate will have to be sought.
An explanation of the consequences of having the survey the way it is might help to prevent future occurrences of this kind of dilemma.
The downside of this kind of approach is that it is very time consuming and this might work against it since some issues are ongoing and a remedy may be needed as soon as possible. In this particular situation, all he may need to do is get another program evaluation consultant who shares his views to do the work for him.
Its advantage on the other hand is that it is elaborate and takes into consideration the feelings and even responsibilities that might arise from the consequences of the action courses that will be taken along the way. At the end of the process all the parties have an understanding of what was going on and if the issue is resolved, then every individual party is catered for in terms of opinion.
References
Canadian Psychological Association (2000). Canadian code of ethics for psychologists (3rd ed.).
Gilmartin, M. J. (1999). Strategy and organizational effectiveness: A case study of health care
services change.Nelson, D.L. & Quick, J.C. 2008. Understanding Organizational Behavior. Mason, OH: Centage
Learning.
Tenbrunsel, A. E., & Smith-Crowe, K. 2008. Ethical decision making: Where we’ve been and
where we’re going. The Academy of Management Annals, 2(1): 545-607.
